BBC NEWS | Americas | Vote gives Brazil head good news

Hilan is furious about this. This means there'll be no call to impeach Lula and suggests the top of the PT (worker's party) has managed to put a barrier between itself and the corruption scandal.

Remember, the main accusation is that it paid members of other parties to support it in parliament. The PT's "Mandelson" has resigned, but other senior members of the government are denying all knowledge. And this support they're receiving in parliament seems to indicate that other parties are willing to work with them.

Of course, there are plenty of small parties which are, as Hilan puts it, "for rent". They back whoever is in power in return for more positions in government for their members. Which is the kind of horse-trading you can expect with a large number of parties in a proportional representation system. But, some of these parties seem to exist mainly as vehicles for their leaders to cash-in by accepting kickbacks from wannabe contractors. (That's you, Roberto Jefferson!)

So, the result of a weakened government trying to shore up support is going to be more corruption.

Hmmm. Maybe someone could simulate this. A multi-agent system which simulates a number of parties. Parties get posts if they support the government, some party members are corrupt (randomly). However, corruption reflects badly on the party (not sure if this is true). Do more parties, make corruption more common?

Also interesting. The Tehran Times seems to have better, more detailed, analysis than the BBC.

More from Reuters too.